Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/331

 UNDER EOMAKS.] SPAIN 307 The north Angus tus. Roman conquest Mete. Three an imperfectly conquered regions of the west and north-west, the country of the Lusitanians and of the Gallaeci, and with a fleet from Gades is said to have occupied a point in the north-west answering to Corufia. But he was too short a time in Spain to reduce these barbarous regions to permanent subjection, and the work still remained to be accomplished. In the civil war with Poinpey in 49 he was in Hither Spain, winning decisive victories over Pompey : s generals, Afranius and Petreius. Once more, in 45, he had to enter Further Spain at the head of an army, and to defeat his rival's sons at Munda, some- where probably in the neighbourhood of Cordova, a victory which made him undisputed master of the Roman world. Spain, however, the northern part at least, was not thoroughly subdued " pacified," in Roman phrase, till the reign of Augustus, whose ambition it was to advance the boundaries of empire to the ocean. In the north was a wild and warlike highland population, a collection of tribes known as the Astures in the north- west, and their neighbours the Cantabri to the east, between a mountain range and the coast, "the last," as Gibbon says (Decline and Fall, ch. i.), "to submit to the arms of Rome and the first to throw off the yoke of the Arabs." Ctesar's flying visit in Gl had done some- thing to cow these tribes, but ever and again they would assert their independence. In 27 the emperor Augustus himself penetrated their strongholds, and he passed two years in Spain ; decisive victories were won over the northern tribes, and their towns and villages were converted into military posts in the occupation of the legionary veterans. Such was the origin of Saragossa, a modern survival of the name of Ctesar Augusta then given to an old town on the Ebro, henceforth an important Roman centre in Spain. The successes of Augustus were commemorated by the same title bestowed on other ancient Spanish towns, Bracara Augusta (Braga) in the north-west, Asturica Augusta (Astorga) still further north, Emerita 1 Augusta (Merida) on the Guadiana, which became a Roman city of the first class, "the Rome of Spain," as it has been called, and Pax Augusta, perhaps the modern Badajoz. The work of consolidating the Roman dominion in Spain was completed in 19 by his friend and minister, Marcus Agrippa, and now at last the " Cantaber non ante domabilis," as Horace has it, acknowledged Rome's supremacy. Spain was fairly con- quered ; the warlike peoples of the north were cowed and broken ; the south was thoroughly Romanized, the popula- tion having adopted Latin manners and the Latin tongue. Some of the best specimens of Roman architecture, some of the finest Roman coins, have been discovered in the cities of Spain, which from the time of Augustus became rapidly prosperous, and were famous for their schools and their scholars. Spain, in fact, was more completely Roman than any province beyond the limits of Italy. The country which had hitherto harassed Rome with incessant risings and insurrections was at last peaceful and contented, a happy land which for the next 400 years may be said to have had at least no military history. Under Augustus the old political constitution into two provinces, Further and Hither Spain, of which the Ebro had been the boundary, was set aside, and exchanged for a division into the three provinces of Lusitania, Baetica, and Tarraconensis, sometimes spoken of as the "Three Spains." Of these Baetica, so called from the Baetis (the Guadalquivir), and answering nearly to Andalusia inclu- sive of Granada, was the smallest ; Tarraconensis, which embraced Hither Spain and the interior and all the north, was much the largest. Lusitania corresponds to modern 1 Emerita, from "emeriti," soldiers whose term of service had expired, in fact, "veterans from the legions." Portugal. The centres of administration were for Tarra- conensis, Tarraco; for Baetica, Corduba; for Lusitania, Emerita Augusta. We may see, in part, on what prin- ciples this division of the country was adopted. Lusitania and Bsetica had tolerably distinct features, the latter having been from the earliest times the most civilized and the most tractable district of Spain. North of the Tagus came a much wilder region, the home of excitable and warlike tribes; this in great part, so as to include the country of the Celtiberi, was thrown into Tarraconensis, which, and also Lusitania, were under the empire "Cajsaris provincial," the governors of them being nomin- ated by the emperor. The smaller and quieter province of Bsetica was a " senate's province "; and its finances were under the charge of the old republican official known as a " quaestor." The governor of Tarraconensis seems to have held decidedly the first position in the country ; he had as a matter of course the greater part of the army under his command, and he was usually, it may be presumed, an ex-consul. The governorship, indeed, of this province must have been one of the best appointments in the emperors' gift. Under the empire Spain was divided for the general Spain purposes included under the head of local administration under into fourteen " conventus," that is, provincial parliaments tbe. or assemblies made up of a union or combination of so many communities or townships. The town or city which was the centre of each " conventus " was the place where justice was administered to the inhabitants of the district, and would, so far, answer to our assize-town. In Tarra- conensis there were seven of these " conventus," Tarraco, New Carthage, and Caesar Augusta being the chief ; in Baetica, four, Gades and Corduba being of the number ; in Lusitania, the least populous and civilized district, three Emerita Augusta the principal, Pax Julia, perhaps the modern Beja, and Scalabis not far from the mouth of the Tagus. Pliny (the elder), to whom we are indebted for these details, enumerates 360 cities in Spain in the time of Vespasian. These included every variety of township, the "colonia" which originated in a camp or a settlement granted to old soldiers, the town whose inhabitants had all been made Roman citizens in the fullest sense ("muni- cipium " in Roman phrase, under the empire), the town that had the inferior franchise ("jus Latii "), the "free town," which might at any time have its freedom taken from it, and the " tributary " town (" ci vitas stipendiaria"). Spain presented types of all these various communities till Vespasian, it is said, gave them all the "jus Latii," which opened an easy door for the provincials to the full privileges of citizenship. A native-born Spaniard might now rise to the imperial dignity, as Trajan did ; and the Spaniards generally must have felt themselves to all intents and purposes Romans. The provincial constitution of Spain was revised and Re- modified to some extent in the 2d century in the arrange- time, it would seem, of the Antonines and Hadrian. The t vast and unwieldy province of Tarraconensis was sub- V mces. divided, and the divisions distinguished as Gallsecia (the north-west), Carthaginiensis with New Carthage for its capital, Tarraconensis (the old name being then still retained for one division) with Caesar Augusta for its capital, and the Balearic Isles, which had always been regarded as Spanish territory. Constantine accepted this arrangement, including, however, in it a strip of the western coast of Africa, part of the old Mauritania, which, from an ancient Moorish town, Tinge (Tangier), took the name of Tingitana among the later Roman provinces. Spain in 256 A.D. was invaded and ravaged by the Prankish Franks ; Tarraco was almost destroyed, and several invasion, flourishing towns reduced to mere villages. It was, how-